Live Bitcoin Streaming Chart BTCUSD hit $190+ today

UPDATE: Tonight ONLY April 11th , 2013 If you want clear streaming bitcoin live charts I put up a daily & 5min LIVE link here http://sg22.ly/ZpWPhp was 67.10 $BTC #bitcoins #BTCUSD . I’ll try to leave it on all night if possible – Attached is a copy of the charts you will see when you log in and they stay streaming in real time: http://sg22.ly/XGiqaY

You can also log in via iPad or Iphone if you have the free gotomeeting app: Meeting ID is 572-805-553 daily & 5min streaming LIVE bitcoin link here http://sg22.ly/ZpWPhp

Updated April 8th at 5:45pmEST Bitcoin bounced back BTCUSD to $189 so regained much of that earlier intraday drop that you can see in chart i posted.

Updated April 8th 12:50pmEST – after I wrote this blog this a/m we had a fast drop on Bitcoins price and had many wondering what happened as it fell near 10%

Why did Bitcoins drop today ? the drop today from $190’s to $170’s was related to a Major bitcoin exchange attack which I mentioned in this article as a one of the things that could affect Bitcoins negatively. updated April 8th 1:52pmEST as bitcoins dropped back today another article surfaced that a bitcoin mining Trojan virus was on skype .Major concerns I posted in the morning blog below were that criminals will get creative to try and hack peoples bitcoin wallets or the attack a bitcoin exchange. (Funny timing that happened today after Bitcoins hit new highs $190+) But I think we will see more of this as time goes on and will be interesting to see how bitcoin can survive : http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=2459

click on chart to make it easier to read the notes

live Bitcoin Chart with drop from $190’s to $170’s April 8th 2013 – by Stockguy22

I had been watching live Bitcoin chart last week since $100 broke through.

This morning hit over $190 and a high of $190.90.

on March 1st 2013 it closed at $34.50 so as of April 8th its popped up more than 450%+ . If this were a regular stock you would get many trying to short it this high.

I’ve been reading more on Bitcoins and for the most part this has been an underground economy that recently hit over $1B in value. So now that its even higher and getting closer to $200 is this a bubble or a currency that could actually take off even higher from here to $2,000+ as some suggest.

How did Bitcoins Start?

They started after the 2008 Financial crisis in 2009. Its a bit of a mystery who actually invented them but its very interesting.

Those of us that traded Silver in 2011 saw a parabolic move on it and the weekend that Bin Laden was killed the CME increased margin requirements on Silver at one point over 84% in just under 2 weeks which forced some traders to close out positions. this caused Silver to drop dramatically. We caught a great short during that time and make some great money.

Many of us trading for a long time know that even .com’s were a bubble that burst in spring of 2000. But those internet companies that survived like Google, Amazon, Priceline , VeriSign, Yahoo and Apple with major recent drop from $700 are all much higher then they were after the post crash early 2000-2003 lows they hit.

In this case you can’t short bitcoins, there are no margin requirements so could this be a true real supply/demand curve scenario?

A few key things that can affect Bitcoins prices negatively are:

If the larger paper bitcoin millionaire holders if they start to sell off their bitcoin inventory ( supply) The actual supply of total Bitcoins will be capped at 21Million and at current time there are 11 Million in circulation so as like other important commodities like Silver & Gold there is a max supply at some point.

Currently, 25 new bitcoins are generated with every 10-minute block. This will be halved to 12.5 BTC during the year 2017 and halved continuously every 4 years after until a hard limit of 21 million bitcoins is reached during the year 2140

No buyers step in at these higher prices ( demand) or during any crashes.

Lack of places that will accept bitcoins if the price gets too high. We know when something like a stock gets too high it will split to make it more affordable. I know that bitcoins go 8 decimal points but if I am selling a service via bitcoins and price goes up 450% in just over 1 month I will constantly have to be re-adjusting my pricing. I would feel better to accept bitcoins but also hesitant that I’m not caught in a bubble where my bitcoins that I accept for $190 this week are only worth $100 next week.

Government legislation or interference (we’ve seen them go after torrent sites so the argument that the whole internet would have to shut down to affect bitcoins i don’t feel is true). We’ve seen the gov’t shut down the US online poker market by not going after the players but after the banks that allowed people to put money into the passbooks like NetTeller. Those of you in US that played online poker know that scenario very well. I think just a matter of time for government to put in some legislation as this market cap goes up.

Bitcoin exchange crashes or is hacked ( recently Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange was hit with a denial of service and caused bitcoins to drop in value but recovered shortly after).

If someone finds a way to hack and take people’s bitcoin wallets or coins. I know there is bitcoin security but as bitcoin prices get high the criminals will get more creative too. If they can get into hacking business, banking and individual accounts I doubt that they will not find a way to hack Bitcoin accounts. Just recently someone tried to charge my credit card frauduently and as much as we hate banks, I was not on the hook for the fraud charge and it was reversed and it was actually my bank that alerted me to the false charge. So we do have a level of support from banks in the modern world , unless your account last month was in Cyprus and was over 100,000 Euros then the banks robbed you. updated April 8th 1:52pmEST as bitcoins dropped back today article surfaced that a bitcoin minin Trojan virus was on skype , told you those criminals will get creative to try and hack peoples accounts : http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=2459

Competition if a new non- Bitcoin alternative currency is started – In any brand new industry I’ve found that there are always copycats/competition that will try to learn all about advantages and disadvantages of bitcoins and potentially offer better services (eg. would be wider acceptance for a non Bitcoin currency). So definitely new forms of non-Bitcoin currencies could affect the success of bitcoins. You could also argue that more competition or acceptance by retailers will make Bitcoin even more acceptable as a key alternative currency. The biggest success I’ve seen recently of a brand new industry was Paypal. Its not perfect but has carved out a successful niche market while at the same time offering a way for businesses and individuals to accept alternative methods of payments. Initially Paypal was not widely accepted but once it was it worked amazingly well. I’ve been using Paypal for 10 years with no problems. I remember when Paypal first started out and it had issues with adult sites, illegal products ( like fake rolexes etc.) , disputed transactions and Paypal keeping funds. So maybe the illegal portion of Bitcoin business is just part of the growth curve which is slightly similar to Paypal problems during its early growth days. Everyone may think Paypal was first but initially Ebay was using Billpoint before Paypal even existed. Paypal offered new competition that was welcomed by users of auction sites like Ebay and grew exponentially and even more once eBay bought them out. In many industries and sectors its not always the first one to come up with an idea to become the leader as in the case of Paypal. So maybe in 5 years if Bitcoin is still around we may find that a new company has dominated this alternative currency space if they can get more services/sectors to widely accept it vs. current Bitcoin acceptance rates or offer some other advantages .I know there are many differences with Paypal and Bitcoins but just trying to point out a few similarities to something so new that the initial odds of success vs. having to deal with governments and banks is totally stacked against them. Many similarities as you can see and also many differences since bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed as is the case with Paypal.

We’ve had a flash crash on bitcoins in June 2011 where they went to .01 cent more extreme to stock market flash crashes we’ve seen. In the case of the stock market the trades at extreme levels can be disputed and eliminated. What happens if another bitcoin flash crash happens? Youtube video below of a live bitcoin flash crash. Similar to stocks when that happens there are no buyers, but after those major corrections as in stocks that’s where those that do buy make the most money. Bitcoins later recovered from these low penny trades in 2011 but the crash was from over $30 to 1 penny.

We’ve also seen lot of discussions lately if Bitcoins are just the next Bubble ready to burst.

We were talking in chat this morning about whether Bitcoins move up recently can be compared to past bubbles that as traders we are aware of like:

Silver pop into early 2011

The Spring of 2000 Internet .com bubble

TulipMania bubble of 1,600’s ( whenever you have a bubble you will hear this referenced)

Is it like a penny stock that has gone completely parabollic and will eventually collapse?

or are Bitcoins the real deal, and although we can expect it to be volatile over time, that can end up having a continuous parabolic chart? I’ve never seen that happen continuously in all my 20+ years of trading but we have seen charts like Berkshire Hathaway that even as price got higher it has done well year after year with exception of a few under-performing years.

One of the most known and famous paper millionaires of Bitcoins right now is Max Keiser. When I first heard his name I thought hopefully this is not too close to Kaiser Soze from Uusual Suspects and we will eventually find out that is not his real name and bitcoins were a scam all along..lol

Bitcoin millionarie company Butterfly Labs which makes Bit Mining computers and accepted payments via Bitcoins probably has a value close to $200Million now that we are at $190+ per bitcoin. At $100 they were worth close to $100Mill per this article by Max Keiser:

In the same article Keiser suggests that Bitcoins could surpass the market value of silver which could take each bitcoin value to $2,700 . We will have to see over time how this plays out but if got to that crazy level would definitely raise much interest around the world.

This implies a price per Bitcoin, at current supply number, of approximately $2,700 per bitcoin. More importantly, this surge past silver’s market cap will be an important signal to anyone trying to manipulate currencies (Wall St. and various governments) that a new sheriff is in town: Bitcoin.

One good post here I read on Reddit by a Bitcoin insider has some good points: and says Bitcoin is either worth zero or $1,000’s each. I think this guy has the right idea if he actually owns Bitcoins and had the right attitude. I know when I have owned any stocks longer term I don’t worry about the intraday fluctuations. He is definitely right about the foolish people buying up Bitcoins now just because its going up or down quickly is not the right reason. He has a longer term perspective and is sticking with it. Have to admire that 7 points he went over.

So there you have it from Zero to $2,700 per bitcoin are the estimated valuations. This is definitely a very interesting topic and will keep an eye on bitcoins in the coming months and years.

I do know someone that has owned Bitcoins in the past but he sold them a bit soon before this huge runup.

I don’t currently own any Bitcoins.

Further update: Mon April 8th 10pmEST : @AlexMorris from TymoraPro made a good point re: Bitcoins that he said I should add to this blog post. He said I left out the “production costs” of bitcoins which is an important factor to consider as the bitcoin price has come up — the cost of mining has falling from 50 to 25 coins/block.

TymoraPro is also the software I used to post the live Bitcoin Charts above – You can follow Alex on twitter for live stock/futures/currencies & bitcoin ALERTS here: http://twitter.com/tymoraPro

updated Tuesday April 9th ..

Colin a stock trader that I’ve known on twitter for a number of years has been involved in the Bitcoin community for nearly 18 months and active in the over-the-counter market for the nascent digital currency. He has offered to answer any questions that you have on bitcoin industry at bitcoin.stackexchange here: http://sg22.ly/ZkujgZ If you want to talk privately to him you can contact him directly http://sg22.ly/148N7sq I’m not sure if he’ll talk “dirty Bitcoin” chat for $1.67/min but you can ask him..lol